UPDATE 3-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

5 MIN. DE LECTURA

(Adds Gamesa and Media General)

March 7 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 2100 GMT on Friday. (For Reuters columns on deals, click on [DEALTALK/])

** German chemicals group Altana ALTG.DE is in talks with U.S. private equity firm KKR to buy its stake in specialty chemicals firm Rockwood Holdings ROC.N as part of a 4 billion euro ($6.2 billion) takeover, a magazine reported.

To read more, please double click on [nL07771354]

** Atari Inc ATAR.O said that majority shareholder Infogrames Entertainment IFOE.PA has said it wants to buy the rest of the company for $1.68 per share. [nWEN4376]

** British drinks giant Diageo (DGE.L) and Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS) agreed to strengthen their ties in South Africa and take on dominant domestic brewer SABMiller SAB.L by building a brewery there by end-2009. [nL07700291]

** Brazil’s biggest private bank, Bradesco (BBDC4.SA)(BBD.N), said it would buy the country’s top brokerage, Agora, in an all-stock transaction worth about 830 million reais ($494 million). [nN06250181]

** Travel firm Thomas Cook (TCG.L) said it was spending up to 249 million euros ($384 million) on acquisitions in India and the Middle East as part of a drive to expand in fast-growing emerging markets. [nL0721770]

** Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered (STAN.L) said it had sold its Indian asset management business to Infrastructure Development Finance Co (IDFC.BO) for $205 million in cash. [nBOM120178]

** Spanish power company Iberdrola (IBE.MC) said it had increased its direct stake in wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa GAM.MC by 4.63 percentage points to 23.95 percent. [nL07585754]

** Media General Inc MEG.N said it agreed to sell WTVQ-TV in Lexington, Kentucky to Morris Network. [nWNAS4036]

** Citigroup (C.N) Chief Executive Vikram Pandit denied the financial group may put its South Korean unit up for sale, a Citibank source said, although the U.S. bank is shedding peripheral units. [nSEO256149]

** France’s Rexel (RXL.PA) said it had succeeded in its break-up bid for smaller Dutch peer Hagemeyer HAGN.AS. [nL07689838]

** Finnish machinery rental firm Cramo (CRA1V.HE) said it had agreed to buy all shares in Czech firm Techniline spol s.r.o., but did not disclose the value of the acquisition. [nL07686350]